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Oral history interview with Zoltán Réti

Zoltán Réti, born in 1923 in Hungary, describes his employment under a Jewish architect in Balassagyarmat; his work in the Kárpátalja region; his good relationship with Jewish bankers; an incident in the autumn of 1944 in which his Jewish employer was shunned by the community; the relocation of Jews from Balassagyarmat ghetto to Nyírjes; how he became a prisoner of war until 1946; and an incident in which stolen Jewish property was sold back to Holocaust survivors.

This is a witness interview of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's Perpetrators, Collaborators, and Witnesses: The Jeff and Toby Herr Testimony Initiative, a multi-year project to record the testimonies of non-Jewish witnesses to the Holocaust. The interview was directed and supervised by Nathan Beyrak.

Funding Note

The production of this interview was made possible by the Tziporah Wiesel Fund.

Miklós Kóródi discusses the deportation of Jews and a death march from Budapest heading west; digging pits for bodies of those who died on the march; witnessing dead bodies thrown into ditches; seeing goods owned by Jews distributed to authorities; seeing the harassment of children for patronizing Jewish-owned stores and of individuals who attended Jewish funerals; the reinforcement of antisemitic laws; the beating of Jews who did not wear the yellow Star of David badge; hearing that Jews from Gonyu and Gyor were shot in the Danube River; people he knew who helped Jews during the war; and witnessing people looting vacated Jewish stores.

Zoltán Őri, a retired architect living in Dunaujvaros when interviewed, discusses the first time he saw a Jewish person wear a Star of David badge; watching the Nazi propaganda film Jud Suss; resulting tensions and smashed Jewish windows in his community following the film; witnessing teenage boys throwing stones at a Jewish-owned house; witnessing the collection of Jews in two buildings and a courtyard; seeing gendarmes pushing people towards a train station with rifle butts and seeing elderly Jews carried in a cart; two names of local administrators who collaborated in deporting Jews; a Jewish acquaintance who promised he would act in revenge; hearing news that his friend, Peti Fritz, was bullied for being a Jew; general public knowledge of the deportations; and hearing that Jews underwent body cavity searches before being deported.

János Szabó, a retired border patrol guard in Csorvas, 78 years old at the time of the interview, discusses his memory of witnessing 60 Jews from surrounding towns (Csorvas, Gerendas, and Totkomlos) being collected in a house; a friend who was allowed to bring food to the detained Jews; seeing gendarmes escorting Jews to the train station; and seeing the train full of Jews departing Hungary.

Janos Kopka, a retired journalist, approximately 79 years old at the time of the interview in Nyiregyhaza, Hungary, discusses his mother’s refusal to keep valuables belonging to a Jewish neighbor; hearing antisemitic songs as a boy; witnessing Jews being rounded up in Nyiregyhaza and a procession of people being taken to the ghetto; overcrowding and hunger in the ghetto; hearing about Mayor Pal Szohor announcing the city clean of Jews in the summer of 1944; using his horse and cart to transport elderly and sick Jews to Nyirjes; witnessing gendarmes throw to the ground physically weak Jews who were unable to get off the cart; seeing vacated houses looted and boarded up; being told where stolen goods were being distributed; his view of why people did not behave honorably; a group of boys singing antisemitic songs in the streets; hiding under the seats in a movie theater during the Jud Suss film; his understanding of Germany’s invasion of Poland and the start of the war; non-Jews inhabiting vacant Jewish houses; his father taking him to the town square where Jewish-owned furniture was for sale; and his father's refusal to purchase the furniture.

Erzsebet Bercki, 76 years old at the time of the interview in Nagykallo, discusses how her family hid three Jewish men; seeing Jews marching down a road and the bodies of those who had been shot; soldiers passing through her home frequently during the Battle of Debrecen when German and Soviet soldiers fought in the forest by her house; her memory of Jewish men hiding in a ditch by her house; how her parents devised a code using food to indicate whether the soldiers were Soviet and the environment was safe or if the soldiers were German; how the Jewish men in hiding would interpret Russian for her family; hiding in a bunker for several days with Jews and local women in fear of being raped; hearing people talking about breaking into and stealing furniture from houses previously owned by Jews; meeting people who had acquired the furniture; and an antisemitic song that she learned from a German soldier who spoke Hungarian.

Mihály Szűcs, a retired teacher 81 years old at the time of the interview, discusses witnessing local Jews being deported from Pocspetri village; Jews being required to wear the Star of David badges on their clothes; hearing about a Jewish employee losing her job at the town hall because of her background; his memory of Jewish families saying farewell because the next morning they had to report to the town hall with their belongings; his parents’ social democratic leanings; his parents’ anger about their friends’ deportation; seeing horse-drawn carts taking Jews away; his father visiting his Jewish friends in the Nyiregyhaza ghetto; hearing about the Arrow Cross and how they were not particularly cruel; the range in brutality among the gendarmes; his feeling that his community was not antisemitic; hearing about an attractive Jewish woman who was spared by a German soldier; and his memories of how after the war a local priest spoke against the deportations.

Borbála Mátraházi (Mátraházi Ferencne Alapi Borbála), born in 1932, discusses her memories of growing up in Paszto, Hungary; her mother’s work as a laundress for Jewish families; the Pick family who gave her bread from their bakery and clothes; her mother’s continued work for the Pick family even after they advised her to stop during deportations; seeing vacant Jewish houses broken into and looted; a request from the Rosenberg family to hid their son during deportations; seeing the Rosenberg family being taken away; her memory of bystanders shouting derogatory remarks at Jews; her mother taking walnuts and food to Jews in the ghetto in Nagygombos (Hatvan); being mocked when her best friend, Eva Kovacs, started wearing the Star of David badge; her parents’ offer to take Eva into hiding; her memory of watching Eva in line at the train station as she was being deported; and how some Jewish survivors returned to the area after the war.

Gábor Oláh, born in 1929 in Buj, Hungary, discusses peaceful relationships with Jewish neighbors prewar; how Jews were integrated into society; his memories of going to Jewish homes and lighting their candles during Shabbat; the arrival of Arrow Cross soldiers who patrolled town streets and recruited the poor and uneducated; the Arrow Cross waving flags and shouting antisemitic slogans; hearing about antisemitic measures such as inspectors who purposefully tried to find fault with Jewish shops; hearing that Jews were notified by local authorities to gather the following morning with personal belongings; his memories of his Jewish neighbors who brought their valuables to his father to safeguard; villagers who cried and waved goodbye while watching Jews ride in horse carts out of the village; his memories of how the gendarmes had nothing to do because the procession was peaceful; onlookers who watched the march and speculated whether it would be their turn next; seeing children wearing the yellow Star of David badges; learning that the Jews were taken to a beer factory outside Nyiregyhaza; hearing priests at church deliver sermons condemning the deportation; the absence of looting of properties and soldiers occupying larger homes during the German occupation; some survivors’ repatriation after the war; survivors who were able to gain back their property; and hearing about the postwar lives of survivors.

Sandor Gombita, born in 1928 in Vásárosnamény, discusses his close relationship with Jews and their integration into society before the war; how his father worked as a postman and delivered mail to Jews; how Jewish twin sisters taught his sister how to cook and allowed her to visit the mikvah; his best friend, a son of a Rabbi, who would purchase wine for his father from a Jewish vintner; his memories of hanging out with the Ragged Guards (Rongyos Gárda) in Vásárosnamény; his memories of two Ragged Guards visiting a clothing store and mocking the Jewish store owner who then gave them four sets of clothes for free; his childhood Jewish friends cutting off their payos when new antisemitic laws were introduced in 1938; joining the military in accordance to a new 1939 law requiring boys over 10 years old to serve; working as a gendarme messenger to the Jews; reporting how wealthy Jews must pay 500 to 1000 pengos; his memories of friends leaving for mandatory military service; working patrol duty at the Bran Castle where 50 to 60 poor Jewish families were captive; the unsanitary living conditions at Bran Castle; accompanying a boy named Sanyi Ehrenfeld from Bran Castle to the boy’s house; finding out the Jewish families at Bran Castle had been relocated to an unknown location; his Jewish teacher at school who said goodbye to her students in 1939; attending Szalasi’s speech in 1940 where he announced Jews were causing oppression; his father slapping him when he sang Arrow Cross antisemitic songs; graduating from high school in June of 1943 and working in factories; working as an administrative officer in finance and county chief offices; witnessing the closing of Jewish stores and restaurants; writing a letter of protection for the Jewish stationary shop owner when gendarmes threatened to close his store; seeing Jews deported in horse carts to Kisvárda; hearing about Jewish clothes taken to a warehouse; his mother’s work on a team that organized and mailed clothes to an unknown location; his mother stealing clothes for him; the organization of Jewish furniture and valuables and items used as dowry for women; his memories of playing the piano in the Bran Castle; being sent to the KALOT Catholic Association’s secretary where they replaced his Arrow Cross with a Catholic cross; seeing vacated Jewish houses; hearing that people requested property ownership from the government postwar; his friend Sanyi Grunberger forging a document stating his leave from the military, and the chief administrative officer signing the document to make it legitimate; hearing about Arrow Cross members brought to trial and sent to the detention camp at Mátészalka; hearing about the looting of furniture and goods in storage at a synagogue in September 1944; and hearing about the military guarding particular furniture and returning it to the appropriate Jewish families after the war.

Magdolna Skrinyár (Skrinyár Mihályné Kiss Magdolna), born in 1935 in Tatabanya, Hungary, discusses her memories of her father being taken away in 1941, leaving her mother left with three young children; the bombing of their apartment and their relocation to an emergency apartment in downtown Budapest; sharing the apartment with Orthodox Jewish refugees from Poland; relocating to Szamossályi in Eastern Hungary with her grandmother where Jews and non-Jews lived peacefully; her school teacher, Jozsef Kondor, requiring Jewish students to remove their jackets with the Star of David badge when in the classroom and chasing away authorities who tried to reinforce antisemitic laws; hearing the announcement for the Jews to be deported; hiding in an alley and watching Jews thrown into carts by gendarmes; picking up a slipper which fell off an elderly woman’s foot as she boarded a cart and a gendarme screaming at her to leave the scene; seeing a man tucking his tallis into his jacket and another man protesting when they exited a synagogue and were forced into the carts; seeing onlookers cry during the deportation; seeing the empty synagogue and its walls smeared with human excrement after looting; her relocation to a smaller house which was part of a Jewish estate and living there until liberation; her grandmother’s comment that she saw someone wearing clothes from a deported Jew; people’s depreciatory remarks that the deported would adjust to their new circumstances; and hearing Protestant Pastor Zolan Pasztor commemorate the deported Jews at mass.

Tibor Szirtes, born in 1933, discusses hearing antisemitic jokes and songs while growing up in Budapest; the low profile maintained by Jewish classmates in school; hearing about university students beating up Jewish students; hearing derogatory terms when talking about Jews in a bar; informing a Jewish store owner that his apartment was bombed; his father and his colleagues guessing at who belonged to Arrow Cross; memories of an antisemitic journal to which his father subscribed in fall of 1944; relocating to his mother’s hometown, Melykut, to escape bombings; him memory of some Jewish families who converted to Christianity; evacuating their Pestszentlorinc neighborhood in November 1944 and searching for a new apartment; touring two apartments previously owned by Jews; a soldier who collected items that belonged to deported Jews; noticing toys in the apartment and picking up a small camera which he used once film was available after 1950; his mother’s decision that they could not morally move into a deported Jewish person’s apartment; returning a musical instrument he took from one of the apartments; seeing stacks of letters written by the apartment’s owners; witnessing Arrow Cross soldiers round up Jews; how the Arrow Cross soldiers looked at him suspiciously because he wore a military uniform; returning to school after a year and a half and noticing two Jewish classmates who returned as well; knowing Jewish colleagues at work but never addressing their religious background; living in an apartment in a house previously owned by a wealthy Jewish bakery owner; winning a Budapest Public Transportation Company essay contest in 1984 for essays he wrote about his wartime memories; and donating his re-written essays to the Holocaust Museum in Budapest after noticing severe edits to his essays from the contest.

Klara Battancs (Battancs Janosne Ördögh Klara), born in 1921 in Szeged, Hungary, discusses the peaceful relations between Jews and non-Jews in her community during her childhood; the integration of Jews into society; her family’s grocery shop and its Jewish patrons; the dance school she attended, which was operated by a Jew; hiding a Jewish boy in their horse barn during deportations; the boy’s flight from Szeged to Paris; witnessing the roundup by local civilians of wealthy Jews and entire families; seeing families being forced to walk to the train station where they were loaded into wagons; an acquaintance’s description of the transport wagons; and her memories of seeing the ghetto in Szeged from the outside.

Tibor Kasztner, born in Mako, Hungary in 1936, discusses his memories of people using derogatory terms for Jews in everyday conversations during his childhood; witnessing Jewish families wearing Star of David badges being forced to walk to the train station where they were loaded into wagons; the community’s silence about the deportations; how his father, who worked as a locksmith, refused to unlock Jewish homes for looters; visiting a looted Jewish house and seeing the home in disarray; hearing that the house was later rented to an acquaintance; and an older colleague who engaged in Holocaust denial.

Erzsebet Filyó (Filyó Györgyné Wirsching Erzsebet), born in 1926, discusses the peaceful relationship between Jews and non-Jews in her community before the war; her father’s role as translator between Germans and Hungarians; a Jewish shop owner who gave her candy; a Jewish acquaintance who foresaw difficult times and left the country before deportations; the harassment of Jewish families; seeing Jews wearing Star of David badges; hearing about a Jewish couple who poisoned themselves when deportations began; hearing about Russian soldiers raping women; hearing about a family member who gave information to Russian soldiers, leading them to find women and food; a Russian soldier who threatened to take her; hearing about an 18 year old man shot by a Russian soldier because he was mistaken for a partisan; and hearing that approximately 20 women in her community were raped by Russian soldiers.

Veronika Treszkó (Treszkó Gyorgyne Mohácsik Veronika), born in 1926, discusses the peaceful relationships between Jews and non-Jews in Oros (part of Nyíregyháza, Hungary) prior to the war; her father selling milk to the Jewish families; attending school with Jewish girls and having no recollection of discrimination there; lighting candles for religiously observant Jewish families on Shabbat; Jewish family businesses; buying items from Jewish tradesmen in Nyiregyhaza; the lack of Arrow Cross presence in Oros and no memories of local gendarmes harassing Jews; rumors that a son in a nearby family was an Arrow Cross member; seeing Jews wearing the Star of David badge in Nyíregyháza; hearing boys singing antisemitic songs for which her mother scolded them; policemen and gendarmes ordering Jews to pack belongings and gather together; seeing older women crying at the group of Jews were gathered into a school courtyard; the deportation of the town’s Jews without protests or violence from the gendarmes; witnessing family acquaintances being taken away; witnessing the looting of Jewish belongings; the postwar return of one of the deported family’s sons, who reopened the family store and eventually immigrated to the United States; and the return of the sons from another deported Jewish family.

Márta Kovalik, born in 1929, discusses her family genealogy and memories of living in Vác, Hungary; the discovery that her paternal great grandfather was Jewish; her father’s service in World War I, joining the Communist Party and then the Red Army in 1919; her father’s work at the Kodak factory; his marriage to a Christian woman and hiding his Jewish heritage; attending a Catholic school that admitted non-Christians; the lack of discrimination against Jewish classmates; seeing SS soldiers during the German occupation; feeling afraid of Jews after watching the Nazi propaganda film Jud Suss; her father’s assertion that she should not be afraid because Jews are good people; working in the summer at the Kodak factory and witnessing a Jewish man be required to perform a low skilled landscaping job; watching Jewish acquintances on their way to the train station from which they were deported; hearing about a local Jewish doctor who committed suicide by lethal injection; hearing about people taking Jewish belongings; the requirement for her father to present his birth certificate at work; his boss Alfred Polster who protected the secret of his Jewish background; referring to Alfred Polster a “humanist fascist” because he greeted people with Heil Hitler but rejected the extermination of the Jews; the postwar trial and incarceration of Alfred Polster during which her father testified that Polster saved his life; seeing Polster thank her father for his testimony; learning from her aunt about her Jewish heritage when she was 20 years old; and never discussing her family’s Jewish lineage with her father.

Ilona Bártfai (Bártfai Imrene Páloji Ilona), born in 1930, discusses her relationship with a Jewish acquaintances and classmates in Hajdúhadház, Hungary; the peaceful relationship between the Jewish and non-Jewish community before the war; the implementation of antisemitic laws, such as the restriction against Jewish children attending the local middle school; hearing young boys sing antisemitic songs; hearing about a separate shelter for Jews during air raids; her memories of Jewish-owned stores closing and being looted; people from the town moving into vacant houses; seeing members of the Arrow Cross and Leventes guarding the ghetto; hearing about searches of Jewish-owned homes and businesses; the escape of a Jewish family; seeing Jews being taken to the ghetto by members of the Arrow Cross; her midwife aunt assisting in a childbirth in the ghetto after another midwife refused; watching the new mother with her baby walk to the train station from which they would be deported; recalling her aunt give care advice to the new mother; seeing a soldier threaten her aunt with deportation if she did not leave the area; her memory of women being forced to undergo body searches for valuables; seeing Jews crying and saying goodbye to onlookers; hearing onlookers voice their opposition to the deportation; her memory of trains full of people looking through windows, crying, and waving; the postwar return of some Jewish survivors; how some of the returning Jews received their belongings, houses and businesses back; hearing about the relocation of survivors to other cities; and learning about postwar trials of Hungarian war criminals in Debrecen.

Mária Sárközi (Sárközi Sándorne Csik Mária), born in 1934, discusses growing up in Hungary on a wine vineyard owned by a Jewish family named Kiss; her close relationship with the Kiss family and their comfortable lifestyle in their Jászberény apartment; seeing the Kiss daughter crying and understanding it as a sign of an ominous future; her mother’s explanation that the Kiss family had to wear the Star of David badges because they were Jewish; the expropriation of the vineyard from the Kiss family in 1944; Erno Kiss’ expulsion from practicing law in 1944 and his forced labor in Szolnok; hearing Hungarian soldiers yelling crude comments as she delivered fruit to the Kiss family through the ghetto gate with her mother; going to the train station and seeing Jews from the ghetto being squeezed into wagons; seeing pale, elderly women and children boarding trains; witnessing a woman named Rozsika refusing to give her baby to a German soldier and hearing shots soon after; being ordered to leave the scene by a Hungarian gendarmerie; keeping this story a secret for 40 years; her vivid memory of the incident at the train station; seeing the faces of Jewish children in future generations of her own family; Erno Kiss’ escape from the labor camp; Erno Kiss’ remarriage after the war; how he received the vineyard back and continued to look after Maria’s family; how Erno Enk, a Jewish doctor, traveled a great distance to treat her ill father; and how her grandmother was furious at a priest who did not want to travel to visit her father and threatened to leave the religion.

Károly Bálint, born in 1931 in Nagykáta, Hungary, discusses generous Jewish business owners in town; positive relations between his Jewish and non-Jewish classmates; a Jewish man named Miklos Matolcsi who served as a Nagykáta representative in congress; his memories of delivering food to Jewish manual laborers and gendarmes chasing him away; seeing Jewish manual laborers wearing the Star of David badges when visiting them in Kincsem puszta; witnessing gendarmes taking 30-40 Jews to a house and a seeing a gendarme beating an elderly woman as her sons provided her support while walking; witnessing German soldiers evaluating furniture and valuables in the synagogue; hearing about a veterinarian, Dr. Sandor Sajo, who remained in town to care for horses; hearing about local gendarmes who fled in fear after the war, while others who were not as cruel to the Jewish population remained; apprenticing after the war with Istvan Dudas who married a Jewish woman; and names of survivors who returned after the war, including the wife of a colleague who told him about her experience in Auschwitz.

Kátai Szilveszter, born in 1926, discusses the prewar Jewish population in Nagykáta, Hungary; frequenting shops owned by Jews; witnessing Jewish men being forced to work manual under guard by armed soldiers; citizens who provided food to the to the workers while a guard in the uniform of the Hungarian Army pretended not to notice; hearing about the remaining Jewish women, elderly, and children forced to wear Star of David badges and to live in a ghetto; hearing about members of the Arrow Cross’ plans to distribute a family’s land and other Jewish properties and belongings; the advice of a neighbor who was a supporter of the Arrow Cross that his mother should only shop at Christian-owned groceries; a school teacher named Aranka who told Jewish students to remove their Star of David badges because they were equal to other students; antisemitism and harassment of Jews at school; living outside of town and hearing farmers sing antisemitic songs; the return of only 21 of the 215 local Jews from deportation and labor service; guards brought to trial after the war; the 10 year prison sentence for Matyas Matolcsi who was a member of the Arrow Cross and Member of Parliament for the area; and his memory of a Jewish survivor, Ilona Braun, who shared stories about her experience in a camp.

Mária Tóth (Tóth Laszlone Ambrus Mária), born in 1924, discusses her Jewish friends and the integration of the Jewish community in Kecskemét; Jews who fled to Budapest for safety; saying Hail Mary’s in penitence for accompanying her Jewish friend Borcsa Fleischmann to synagogue; the takeover of Jewish-owned shops; working at the Machinery Shareholders Company of Kecskemét and witnessing the dismissal of Jewish employees; seeing Jewish families being taken out of their homes by local policemen and transported to a brick factory; hearing onlookers say that the Jews deserved their treatment; seeing Jewish friends being deported; hearing how Ivan Hejjas and the Ragged Guards brutally treated Jews; how the Arrow Cross tried to recruit her by offering her belongings that were owned by Jews; knowing supporters of the Ragged Guards and Arrow Cross; guarding a Jewish family’s possessions, which Russian soldiers subsequently looted; the return of some Jewish survivors to the area; and hearing from a survivor about his experience at Auschwitz where his entire family was killed.

Erzsébet Bényei (Bényei Józsefné Kindrusz Erzsébet), born in 1935, discusses her memories of two Jewish playmates and their families; the integration the Jewish community in Nyiregyhaza society; the disappearance of her Jewish friends and their families in 1944; her parents’ shock at the disappearance of their neighbors and dismay as people glibly looted the homes of the deported Jews; an incident in which her mother told a teenager to stop singing an antisemitic song while a passerby encouraged the singer to keep going; hearing about Jews being taken to work in a brick factory; witnessing a procession of Jews who were being deported; her lack of memory in regard to Jewish survivors returning to the town after the war; and the impression that a visit to Auschwitz made on her years later.

Margit Tirpák (Tirpák Jánosné Kerchner Margit), born in 1934, discusses her prewar Jewish neighbors in Olaszliszka, Hungary; positive relationships between Jews and non-Jews; memories of her mother nursing a Jewish baby whose mother lacked milk; her three Jewish classmates; her memories of Jews wearing Star of David badges; the order that any citizen with a horse cart must provide it to transport Jews to the train station; witnessing the deportation of Jews, including her friend Edit Jakubovich and her family; the participation of local policemen in the deportation; the emotional reaction of bystanders who cried and waved goodbye; her mother giving homemade bread to a Jewish family during the deportation; the looting of Jewish belongings following the deportation; keeping books which belonged to Jews and returning them to their owners after the war; individual Jews who returned after the war; her uncertainty as whether ownership of their homes was returned to them; the Friedlander sisters who told her mother how they found their hidden belongings in the attic wall after the war; and Erno Lefkovich who she recalls as the only Jew living in the village after the war.

Julianna Kassai (Kassai Bertalanne Bihari Julianna), born in 1934, discusses her childhood in a Protestant family in Olaszliszka, Hungary; her Jewish classmates; her uncle’s Jewish friends and patrons of their milk business; witnessing a procession of Jews from Bodrogkeresztur being take away in horse carts; the participation of gendarmes on horseback during the deportation; the deportation of one Jewish family that had converted to Christianity; the disappearance of her Jewish classmates; her mother’s offer of walnuts to Jewish laborers in a large group traveling from Satoraljaujhely to Szerencs; Jehovah’s Witnesses among the forced labor group; her neighbor who took food to a Jewish family in the ghetto in Satoraljaujhely and reported on the terrible living conditions there; the return of the Friedman sister after the war; and the sisters' refusal to discuss what had happened to them during the war.

Géza Takács, born in 1928, discusses the mutual trust and friendship between Jews and non-Jews before the war in Olaszliszka, Hungary; his mother’s domestic work for a Jewish family; the Jews in town and their professions which included butchers, wine merchants, and grocers; living in a Jewish-owned house; being taken in by another Jewish family, the Lowys, after the house burned down; antisemitic songs sung by villagers; seeing the terms “Jewish House” and a Star of David painted on the exterior of Jewish homes; witnessing the deportation of Jews from the town and nearby villages; the participation of gendarmes who gathered Jews into carts and prevented local citizens from interacting with the deportees; seeing a family acquaintance, Dezso Biro, being led into the carts; witnessing local leaders and villagers looting and destroying belongings from Jewish-owned homes; and his memories of some Jews returning to the area after the war.

Ilona Vitányi (Vitányi Belane Kassai Ilona), born in 1918, discusses her friendships with Jewish neighbors and classmates during her childhood in Olaszliszka, Hungary; her neighbor who used a scarf to cover up her Star of David badge; seeing horse carts carrying bags and bundles on her train ride back from another town; seeing local Jewish women and girls being taken away in wagon carts; a Hungarian civilian who was guarding the carts; delivering a basket of eggs to her Jewish friend, Aranka Kohn, who was not allowed to leave her home; Aranka’s gift of three red scarves in exchange for the eggs; the threat from a gendarme who had witnessed the exchange; hearing about the looting of Jewish belongings; one of the Kohn children who returned after the war and reopened her father’s store; and Jews who returned to the area after the war and demanded the restitution of their homes.

Mária Pozsgai (Pozsgai Vidane Aradi Mária), born in 1927, Győrszentiván, Hungary, discusses events and changes in Győrszentiván during the Holocaust; the Jewish families in her town with Szusz, Vogl, Deutsch, and Wittmann surnames; the Szusz family’s textile store; Mrs. Szusz, who was the only one of her family to return after the war; Mrs. Szusz hiding textiles in the walls of the store before the family’s deportation; a mason who betrayed the whereabouts of the textiles to local authorizes; Mrs. Szusz’s donation of her house to the state years later; playing with children of employees of the Wittmann farm; hearing that the Szusz family was taken away by the Arrow Cross; the names of young Arrow Cross members and their activities; the Arrow Cross leader Agoston Boroczki’s sentence to 12 years in jail after the war; hearing Arrow Cross propaganda slogans; witnessing the deportation of columns of Jews from a village near Gyor; how the group of deportees was guarded by gendarmes and members of the Arrow Cross; her personal beliefs about the war and the complicity the Hungarian army with Germany; hearing gunshots and learning later that some of the weaker deportees were shot in the back of the neck; Hungarian and Russian soldiers searching for two mass graves close to the Danube after the war; meetings with local communities who may have had some ideas about the location of the graves; hearing about Julianna Eisenberger who hid four Jewish women in the attic of a pigsty; Julianna’s father, Mihaly Eisenberger, who transported each of the four women individually by bicycle to the Gyor train station; the capture and deportation of two of the women at the train station; the return of the other two women to Budapest after the war; Feri Festetics, a university student in Budapest who housed a young Jewish girl in his village, hiding her Jewish identity; the reunion of the girl and her parents after the war; and a Russian captain who lodged in her house after the arrival of Soviet forces in Hungary.

Sándor Bacsúr, born in 1935 in Balassagyarmat, Hungary, describes the presence of Jewish families in his community; actions taken against the local Jewish population, including the order to wear the Star of David badge and the destruction of a synagogue; moving to a new house in 1944 as a result of the establishment of a Jewish ghetto in his neighborhood; hearing adults in his family express concern about the fate of the community’s Jews; an incident in which a wealthy Jewish woman was tortured into revealing where she hid her valuables; the relocation of the community’s Jews to the ghetto in Balassagyarmat; the relocation of Jews from the surrounding villages to the Óváros Square ghetto; the deportation of Jews from the ghettos; guards who were stationed around the ghettos; non-Jews who moved into the homes and stores of Jews; and artwork he created depicting the destruction of the synagogue and his sadness at what happened to Hungarian Jews.

Erzsébet Kun (née Kubicza), born in 1930 in Balassagyarmat, Hungary, describes the Jewish community in Balassagyarmat and her interactions with them; the anti-Nazi political leanings of her parents; her father’s refusal to participate in discrimination against the Jewish population; the conversion of a Jewish family to Catholicism; the requirement that Jews wear Star of David badges; and the deportation of Jews from the ghetto in Balassagyarmat.

Aladár Naszály, born in 1922 in Balassagyarmat, Hungary, describes the large prewar Jewish community in Balassagyarmat and his friendly relations with them; his work in a brush and broom factory under Jewish employers; the requirement that Jews wear yellow Star of David badges; joining the military in 1942; anti-Jewish songs sung by fellow soldiers; the Balassagyarmat ghetto; the relocation of the ghetto’s Jews to Nyírjespuszta to be later deported to concentration camps; the looting of possessions that belonged to Jews; witnessing in 1944 German and Austrian soldiers marching a group of Jews and killing those who could not march; his time in the military; and the aftermath of the war.

Elemér Pálinkás, born in 1917 in Hungary, describes the good relationship between Jews and non-Jews in prewar Balassagyarmat; his work as a barber and hairdresser; anti-Jewish sentiment that spread with the arrival of the German occupation; the relocation of the Jewish population from the main ghetto to Illéspuszta, across the river Ipoly, then to Nyírjespuszta near Balassagyarmat; his visit to the ghetto to serve as a hairdresser and barber; witnessing the murder of a young Jewish man in 1944; and the aftermath of the war.

Irén Polyák (Polyák Györgyné Orosz Irén), born in 1936 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of her town Balsa and the positive relations between the Jewish and non-Jewish population; difficulties for the Jewish population after the start of the war; the closing of shops and order to wear Star of David badges; the deportation of groups of Jews in 1944; the relocation of the Jews of Balsa to Gávavencsellő; the return of some Jews after the war; the looting of the homes of Jewish families after deportations; and hiding from the advancing Soviet Army in the village of Buj.

Irén Tóth (Tóth Józsefné Horvath Irén), born in 1926 in Hungary, describes her good relationship with the prewar Jewish population of Gebe (modern day Nyírkáta); her father’s work as a miller at a mill owned by a Jewish man; her father's professional and friendly relationship with the local Jewish population, which caused suspicion by the local gendarmerie; the burning of her family home and the mill in the mid 1940s; antisemitic acts; being the target of violence as a result of her family's friendly relationship with the Jewish community; the deportation of the Jewish population from Gebe; the case of an escaped Jewish family living in a vineyard who were later caught and taken to the Nyíregyháza ghetto; an incident in which she entered the Mátészalka ghetto to recover a bicycle; the deportation of Jews at Mátészalka; and how no Jewish survivors returned to Gebe after the war.

Mátyás Tullner, born in 1924 in Győr in Hungary, describes the Jewish community of Győr before the war; his family history; the friendly relations between Jews and non-Jews; signs of antisemitism appearing in 1941; anti-Jewish sentiment spreading with the occupation by the Germans in 1944; discriminating actions against the Jewish population, including a registry made of the Jewish residents of Győr and the forced closing of shops owned by Jews; the Star of David badges worn by Jews; vandalization of Jewish shops by the Arrow-Cross group starting in 1943; the forced relocation of the Jewish population into a ghetto on Győr Island; the deportation of the Jews from the ghetto; the sealing of the homes of the Jews; the destruction of many Jewish apartments in 1945 due to a bomb attack; the return of some Jews after the war; and assisting a few Jewish men escape to Budapest.

József Németh, born in 1932 in Hungary, describes witnessing trains transporting Jews through Herceghalom; seeing a group of Jewish men being taken into a barn; his mother giving food to those men; the Jewish families of Zsámbék, a nearby town; the flight of German soldiers at the approach of the Russians; and violent and non-violetn actions of the Russians in his town.

Endre Pintér, born in 1927 in Hungary, describes his class at the Árpád gymnasium in Budapest which included several Jews; a protest action organized by the students to wear Star of David badges with their Jewish classmates; propaganda against the Jews in his hometown of Óbuda; living above the district headquarters of the Arrow Cross Party; violent actions of the members of the Arrow Cross Party; the closing of Jewish shops; the siege of Budapest by German forces; his work as a medic in Margit hospital; the deportation of the Jewish population; incidents in which community members aided the escape of Jews prior to deportation; punishments for those who aided the escape of Jews; the burning of his family’s apartment in 1945; violence committed by Russian soldiers; and the aftermath of the war.

Rozália Brankovics (Brankovics Ferencne Radványi Rozália), born in 1922 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish families living in Bodrogkisfalud, a village near Bodrogkeresztúr; working with her family in a Jewish-owned vineyard; generally good relations between the community’s Jews and non-Jews; her marriage in 1944 in Tiszalök; the deportation of Jews to Szerencs; living in the home of a deported Jewish family; the looting of the homes of deported Jewish families; and the aftermath of the war.

Aranka Tóth (Tóth Sándorné Nyitrai Aranka), born in 1932 in Hungary, describes the Jewish population of her hometown, Gyüre; the positive relations between the Jewish and non-Jewish population; how antisemitic ideas spread from the higher levels of government; the requirement that the Jewish population wear Star of David badges; a decree that Jewish population was not allowed to leave their homes for ten days; her education; an anti-German publication; the deportation of Jews to Kisvárda; the ghetto in Kisvárda; conditions of the train cars in which Jews were transported; the looting of the houses of deported Jews; and life after the war.

Sándor Czike, born in 1929 in Szeged, Hungary, describes living in Székesfehérvár during World War II; his interactions with various members of the Jewish community in Szeged and Székesfehérvár; the intermarriage of his family with a Jewish family; antisemitic remarks from a teacher in his school; how measures were introduced against the Jewish population in 1937; his family’s attempt to hide a Jewish family’s collection of art books and albums to prevent their looting; the removal of young Jews from the town; the looting of Jewish homes by members of the Arrow Cross; actions taken by his family to help Jewish families who were being persecuted; propaganda spread by the Arrow Cross Party; Star of David badges worn by Jews; the actions of his father to protect Jews; the arrest of his father in 1944 for hiding Jews; traveling to the fortress at Komárom with his mother to secure the release of his father; staying in Budapest until January 1945; his involvement in saving Jewish children; and the aftermath of the war.

Attila Csernok, born in 1929 in Székesfehérvár, Hungary, describes the presence of Jewish classmates in his school in Székesfehérvár; staying in a military camp in Komárom in 1944 because of the location of his father; his father’s request for the services of Jewish forced laborers so that he could ease their situation by treating them with respect; his father’s disagreement with the inhumane treatment of forced laborers; witnessing the deportation of a Jewish family; the flight of his family from Hungary; and his writings after the war.

Éva Kurdi (Kurdi Palne Bogar Éva), born in 1924 in Őcsény, Hungary, describes her positive relationships with members of the Jewish community of Őcsény; restrictions on Jews during the German occupation; the deportation of the Jews of Őcsény; and the return of only one Jewish person to the village after the war.

Lajos Kácz, born in 1931 in Őcsény, Hungary describes the prewar Jewish population in his village and the positive relationships between Jews and non-Jews; the introduction of laws that permitted the mistreatment of the Jews, including the closing of Jewish shops; the deportation of the Jewish population; the lack of popularity of the Arrow Cross Party in his village; and violence committed by the Russians.

Sára Lovas (Lovas Istvanne Varga Sára), born in 1929 in Őcsény, Hungary, describes the peaceful relations between the different residents in her village before the war; wartime actions taken against the Jewish population, including the closing of Jewish shops; the deportation of the Jews in 1944 to the ghetto in Tolna; the looting of Jewish homes; the ostracising of Arrow Cross Party members by the village; anti-Jewish songs sung by Arrow Cross Party members; and the aftermath of the war.

Márta Schultz (Schultz Lászlóné Pezső Márta), born in 1932 in Surd, Hungary, describes her attendance at a Catholic high school in Nagykanizsa in 1942; the Jewish community in Nagykanizsa, including the doctor and shop owners with whom she had regular interaction; an incident in which a Jewish shop owner asked to be christened to avoid persecution; positive relationships between the Jewish and non-Jewish population of Nagykanizsa; her family’s anger at restrictions placed on Jews; actions taken by non-Jews to help Jews obtain kosher food; the activities of the local gendarme; anti-Jewish propaganda; the deportation of the Jews; the looting of Jewish belongings; her family’s aid to an escaped forced laborer; hiding a Jewish family in a vineyard; her mother hiding girls with the arrival of Russian soldiers to prevent their being sexually assaulted; and the aftermath of the war.

Irén Peleskeiné Kàràsz (Peleskei Lazosne Kàràsz Irén), born in 1923 in Ivancsa, Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Ivancsa; conditions for the Jewish community under German occupation; her work during the war; and witnessing transports of Jews.

Jolán Sinkáné Grimm (Sinka Belane Grimm Jolán), born in 1933 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of her hometown, including her Jewish classmates; witnessing a column of Jews guarded by SS soldiers; attempting to give food to a Jewish girl, and almost being taken into the column; her father's aid to Jews in hiding; and witnessing hangings in a nearby tree.

Erzsébet Oláhné Ecsédi (Oláh Jozsefne Ecsédi Erzsébet), born in 1927 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Vasmegyer; conditions for Jews under German occupation; Arrow Cross members; the deportation of her Jewish friends in 1944; and a close Jewish friend who returned after the war.

Gizella Jaksáne Posztos (Jaksa Gaborne Posztos Gizella), born in 1925 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Kiskunlachaza; the forced labor of Jewish boys; her work in Budapest for a Jewish family until 1943; her work in Csillaghegy until 1944; visiting the imprisoned Jewish family for whom she worked and being threatened by an Arrow Cross member; gendarmes torturing Jewish women; the deportation of the Jews; and the looting of Jewish owned belongings by Arrow Cross members.

Margit Sinkáné Juhász-Buday (Sinka Andrasne Juhász-Buday Margit), born in 1932 in Hungary, describes living with a Jewish roommate while attending school in Székesfehérvár; her family hiding Jewish families until liberation; a group of imprisoned Jewish women who were made to dance for German soldiers; bringing food to the imprisoned Jewish women; witnessing German soldiers torturing Jews; a family punished for hiding Jews; and the return of many Jews to her village after the war.

György Orosz, born in 1927 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Szarvas; anti-Jewish propaganda; his father praising the expropriation of Jewish property during the war; the Jewish ghetto; assisting in the roundup and deportation of Jews; the arrest of his father by Soviet forces; and learning after the war about mass murders of Jews.

Erzsébet Kellóné Kolakovszki (Kelló Gyorgyne Kolakovszki Erzsébet), born in 1922 in Hungary, describes living in Salgóbánya and the prewar Jewish community of Salgótarján; her memories of a Jewish classmate; witnessing a deportation of Jews; and an antisemitic song.

Zsuzsanna Ónodiné Koczur (Ónodi Janosne Koczur Zsuzsanna), born in 1930 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Szügy; her mother smuggling food to the Jews in the ghetto; the deportation of the local Jewish community; saying goodbye to her Jewish friend; and the return of few Jews after the war.

Mihály Hrapán, born in 1931 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Szügy; restrictions placed upon the Jewish community during the war; the deportation of the Jewish community; and the stationing of a labor unit in Szügy.

Erzsébet Honoriné Várhegyi (Honori Gaborne Vàrhegyi Erzsébet), born in 1929 in Hungary, describes working for a Jewish family in Nemes; the prewar Jewish community of Vácrátót; witnessing Jewish forced laborers working in a nearby forest; bringing food to the forced laborers; the execution of the forced laborers; helping a Jewish man who escaped the killing; a Jewish woman and her children who stayed with her family during the war; and a local young Jewish woman who returned after the war.

Gyula Farkas, born in 1932 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Miskolc; local Arrow Cross members; conditions for the Jewish community during the war; the Jewish ghetto; the deportation of members of the Jewish community; the bombing of his house in 1944; living in a formerly Jewish owned apartment; and the postwar return of the Jewish owner of the apartment in which his family lived.

Róza Schneider Guth (Guth Joszekne Schneider Róza), born in 1927 in Boly, Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Bóly; the persecution of Jews by Hungarian German civilians; the formation of the Volksbund in 1942, which increased Jewish persecution; witnessing the deportation of members of the local Jewish community; actions of the local Arrow Cross party members; and the return of some Jews to Bóly after the war.

Teréz Szarvas Teszarik (Teszarik Palne Szarvas Teréz), born in 1932 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Sükösd; a Jewish boy who was teased for wearing a yellow star badge; her father's work as a night watchman; her Jewish neighbors asking her father to hide valuables for them; the deportation of local Jews; the looting of Jewish owned homes; cruel actions of local guards; and returning valuables to her surviving Jewish neighbor after the war.

Mária Ripszam Schumann (Schumann Robertne Ripszam Mária), born in 1924 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Bóly; her Jewish neighbors; the establishment of a local Volksbund and the treatment of Jews by its members; the deportation of the Jewish community; bringing food to her Jewish neighbors; members of the local Arrow Cross party; and her family buying a house once owned by Jews.

István Gáspár, born in 1923 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Dombóvár; the treatment of Jews during the war; the establishment of the Jewish ghetto; the deportation of the Jewish community in 1944; the role of his father in the gendarmery; local Arrow Cross party members; and the looting of amassed Jewish owned belongings after liberation.

IIlona Szász, born in 1933 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Óbuda; anti-Jewish propaganda; the murder of her Jewish friend's family; the disappearance of a Jewish schoolmate; conditions for the Jewish community during the war; the deportation of the Jewish community; staying with her uncle in Bihardioszeg (Diosig, Romania); the deportation of the Jews from Bihardioszeg; and moving to Balassagyarmat and seeing the Jewish ghetto.

Vilmos Oláh, born in 1928 in Salgótarján, Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish and Romani communities of Salgótarján; his work as a violinist; the treatment of Jews during the war by local townspeople; the deportation of the Jewish community in 1944; his forced labor sorting items from the Jewish ghetto; and his conscription into the army in 1944.

Rozália Tahon Bolyos (Bolyos Laszlone Tahon Rozália), born in 1931 in Hungary, describes the prewar Jewish community of Salgótarján; the conditions for the Jewish community during the war; the establishment of the Jewish ghetto; the looting of Jewish owned belongings by Arrow Cross party members; purchasing books stolen from local Jews; an antisemitic song; and her Jewish classmate who returned after the war.

Rózsa Desztler (Desztler Istvanne Surán Rózsa), born in 1925 in Budapest, Hungary, describes her father, who was a prisoner of war in WWI in Russia and married a Russian woman; her father’s Jewish friends, including József Englender and Kálmánné Szladek; being forced to move to Svábhegy (XII district of Budapest) by German officers; her brother’s arrest by the Gestapo for anti-state activities in 1940; her numerous Jewish friends and classmates, including Ági Labesz; witnessing several episodes of antisemitism beginning in 1943; Jews having to wear yellow stars; her attempts to help her brother and father after they were arrested; being pregnant during that time; the persecution of her family for their ties to communism; escaping their home and going to János hospital; living in a yellow star house on the corner of Podmaniczky and Bajza streets; and witnessing a deportation of Jews.

Julianna Sunyovszky (Sunyovszky Ferencne Bakos Julianna), born April 25, 1929 in Budapest, Hungary, describes her family’s good relations with their Jewish neighbors; seeing Jews being escorted by Arrow Cross men one day when she was shopping with her mother and watching as one the older Jewish men was shot; her next-door neighbor who was part of the Arrow Cross Party; seeing trains carrying Jews many times; the Russians arriving; and hiding in a cellar with others.

Mária Sulyokné (Sulyokné Bellus Mária), born in 1932 in Nyiregyháza, Hungary, describes the Jewish community of Nyiregyháza; her sister (Aranka), who worked a company (Fűszer és Gyarmatáru) with Jewish owners and was assigned the job of selling out the supply of the company after the owners were taken away; seeing Jews wearing the yellow star, including the grocer, Mr. Kohn; her Jewish friend, Márta Grósz, who she visited in the Jewish ghetto; the deportation of the Grósz family and never seeing them again; the looting of Jewish belongings after the deportations; the fear of the leventes (paramilitary youth organizations in Hungary), who would often beat people and were destructive; the Russians arriving; the murder of her sister and her brother-in-law by Russians; and going to work at the National Bank in Budapest in 1947.

Júlia Fogler (Folger Imkene Kardos Júlia), born in 1924 in Budapest, Hungary, describes her Christian mother and Jewish father; her father’s work as a printer for the printing firms Atheneum and Glóbusz; being well informed about current affairs because of her father’s involvement with the Zionist movement; her Jewish classmate Kati Schmidt; the hostility of their neighbors because her family had a good income; the rise of antisemitism; her family’s decision to move to Pesterzsébet (part of district 20 in Budapest) to her aunt’s house circa 1942; anti-Jewish propaganda; a neighbor who was part of the Arrow Cross Party; her father having to wear the yellow star and being taken away one day while he was on his way to work; the yellow star house her father lived in on Pannónia street and visiting him there on two occasions; being more frightened of the Arrow Cross soldiers than the German soldiers; her brother’s escape from the levente (paramilitary youth organizations); being constantly harassed by the Arrow Cross Party members; hiding with her mother in a small pit covered with planks; her mother deciding to move to her hometown, Zámoly, Hungary; being regarded as Jews in Zámoly, which was dangerous, and moving to Székesfehérvár then back to Budapest; the jobs of the Jews in Zámoly and hearing about their deportation; getting married to a Jewish man whose entire family was killed and his family house in Kisk Kiskőrös was destroyed; keeping a diary during the war, even when she was hiding, but losing it during their moves; and how after the Germans came in, she invented a code system to write down her thoughts or German jokes.

Dániel Stiffel, born in 1930 in Csepel (Budapest), Hungary, describes growing up in Csepel; his Jewish friends and classmates, including Roschild and Buxbaum, who were deported during the war; the labor camp on Kikötő street established during the summer of 1943; the conditions and guards in the labor camp; how the gendarme guards behaved as if they were ashamed of what they were doing; peaking in on the camp numerous times; the deportation of the Jews from the camp and Seklers (székely) from Transylvania being forced to move into the camp; his memories of the song, “Long live Szálasi and Hitler”; a large factory in Csepel, Weiss Manfréd factory, where there were bomb-proof shelters that were for non-Jews only; the separate shelters for the higher-ranking officials and managers, where workers were not allowed; Jews having to wear the yellow star; staying with his relatives in Kiskunmajsa-Ötfapuszta in the summer of 1944; going through the Kiskunhalas train station with his mother and her German-speaking friend during the fall of 1944 and witnessing as German and Hungarian soldiers shot 20-25 civilians by the platforms; hiding in a safe place within the railway station building; witnessing with his mother as two Jewish boys begged he and his mother to save them; watching as Jewish boys dug trenches and collected and buried the bodies of those who had been shot; the murder of one of the Jewish boys while he was carrying a dead body; how the after the trenches were dug and the dead bodies buried, the Jewish boys had to line up by the second trench and were shot into it; returning to Budapest and over hearing the same German soldiers from the train station as they discussed the day and entertained themselves with the objects that they took from the Jews; and hearing about an escape route via a wall near Főkert on Dob street in Budapest.
[Note that part of the interview takes place at Kiskunhalas train station.]

Anna Kreisch (Kreisch Joszefné Fehér Anna), born in 1929 in Budapest, Hungary, describes her mother, who did cleaning and laundry for Jewish families, including Mrs. Weis, who lived on Dob street with her two sons; Mrs. Weis leaving before the war; how her house was hit by a bomb on 17 April and her family lost their flat and their belongings; moving to a flat at no. 26 Vilmos császár street, which they had to move out of two months later as it became a yellow star house; the curfew for Jews and bringing ice cream to the Jewish family across the street during the curfew; being threatened by a German soldier for bringing ice cream to their Jewish neighbors; working at a cotton factory beginning in 1943 and training a Jewish girl, Ildikó, who had worked there as a form of labor service; seeing a column of about 50 Jews being walked on Andrássy street and escorted by German soldiers; seeing numerous Arrow Cross Party members in the city; how her sister cried for three days after she saw how Jews were shot into the river; moving to Szakály; and the Russians arriving and attacking the women in Szakály.

Mária Bartha (Bartha Attilane Horváth Mária), born in 1934, describes growing up in Budapest; her parents divorcing and commuting between their homes (her father lived by the bridge connecting Pesterzsébet to Csepel and her mother lived in Pesterzsébet on lower Határ út); her father’s work for a Jewish entrepreneur, Berger; being at school during the first big bombing and going to her father’s house; Jews having to wear the yellow star; the creation of the ghetto and the looting of Jewish homes; Jews being forced to do labor under guard of the Arrow Cross Partymembers; and witnessing the deportation of Jews from the ghetto.

Julianna Balázs (Balázs Istvanne György Julianna), born in 1927, describes growing up in Budapest, Hungary; living in the Újpest neighborhood, where there were many Jewish families; working in her parents’ restaurant; the deportation of some of her neighbors; her husband’s work with a Jewish carpenter, Mr. Kohn; living with her husband in the house of a Jewish man named Krausz, who later changed his name to Kertész; hiding Kertész in the maid’s room at times during 1944; her interactions with the Arrow Cross Party; hiding a Jewish woman named Ilonka, who as the wife of an actor; always trying to get enough food for Kertész and Ilonka; seeing the death of a small child during a bombing; watching as a friend, Laci Neiger, was being escorted by two Arrow Cross men; the gathering of the Jews in Újpest on Hun street and seeing as the columns of Jews walked along Árpád street; Ilonka giving birth to a baby in 1945; and providing Ilonka with breast milk after Ilonka had difficulty producing her own milk.

János Bese, born in 1929 in Budapest, Hungary, describes his childhood and attending an elementary school on Maria Terézia square; his Jewish classmate, György Krausz, who lived with his family at no.1 Jázmin street; the training site for the arrow cross near Ferencváros train station; hearing rumors in 1942 that the Jews would be resettled in Madagascar; hearing antisemitic stories; his father’s sympathy for the political left; living with his family at no.14 Nagytemplom street, in the 8th district; the Jewish family who lived in the same house, the Rosenzweigs, and their 6-year-old daughter, Lili; an incident during which two former Hungarian soldiers chased away Arrow Cross Party members who were trying to take the Rosenzweig family and German soldiers intervening and ultimately taking the Rosenzweigs; speaking with Mrs. Rosenzweigs in July 1945 and finding out that her husband and daughter died during the war; his view on the origins of antisemitism in Hungary; antisemitic jokes that are popular in Hungary; witnessing the fire fight in a building on Népszínház street and Bérkocsis street, during which deserters, labor servicemen, and civilians fought German soldiers and ultimately lost when the Germans brought in a tank; and seeing some of the Hungarian resisters shot in the street.

Anna Tóth (Tóth Martonne Polai Anna), born in 1931 in Nagykanizsa, Hungary, describes living next to a synagogue in Nagykanizsa; spending a lot of time with Jewish families when she was a child; her confusion over Jews having to wear yellow stars; her friendship with the local library manager, Malvin Kircz, who was Jewish; the deportation of Jews from Nagykanizsa, which was led by Arrow Cross Party members; witnessing as Jews were gathered in the synagogue and systematically deported; hearing that some Jews survived in hiding; the Arrow Cross Party organizing the collection and distribution of the belongings of the deported Jews; and her memories of a local camp established for Jewish workers.

János Hangya, born October 30, 1925 in Szakcs, Hungary, describes moving with his family to Budapest, Hungary when he was 10 years old; not being religious; his father’s work for the Jewish Congregation of Faith beginning in 1940; spending a lot of time with Jewish families; attending a school comprised mostly of Jewish boys (there were only 4 Christian boys in his class) and feeling immediately accepted even though he was a boy from the country; working at a factory on Fehérvári street during the war; knowing most of the people who worked at the congregation on Síp street; hearing about the deportation of Jews two weeks after it had begun; Miksa Domokos taking over the leadership of the Jewish community some time around April 1944 and Rabbi Sándor Berendt also appearing at this time; the arrival of the Germans in Hungary; the widespread disbelief of the rumors about the conditions in Auschwitz; having to leave the ghetto with his family by December 1, 1944; moving into the flat of a Jewish family they knew; his father’s ID from the Gestapo, allowing him to enter the ghetto; bringing blankets to lagers in Aszód (near the neighborhood Csepel in Budapest); conditions in the lagers; being asked by Miksa Domonkos (the head of the Jewish congregation) to witness and report about the conditions at the round-ups and deportations in the countryside, which included several villages: Szakcs, Kocsola, Döbrököz, Dombóvár, Kurd, and Kurdcsibrák; going to Szakcs, Kocsola (where his mother was born), and Törökkopány to pick up his mother's and his father's birth certificates and their marriage papers from the local authorities; the Jewish families he knew in Szakcs and Kocsola, whom he saw deported; the transfer of Jews from Kurd and Kurdcsibrák to the ghetto in Dombóvár; being back about 10 copies of his parents' marriage certificate and giving them to Jewish friends and acquaintances to use; the Jewish congregation’s attempts to help the Jewry in the countryside; hearing that Rezső Kasztner freed some people from confinement at the synagogue on Rumbach street; getting a Swiss Schutzpass for someone from the synagogue on Rumbach street; meeting Wallenberg three times; having to report for military service at a military base and staying for three days in a brick factory in Kőbánya before returning home; taking a Swedish Schutzpass to the Reisz family, all of whom survived the war; staying in the basement of the Reisz house during the bombings; and the trial of Béla Berend (a former rabbi from Maramures) after the war.

Tibor Kolosi, born in 1933, describes life in Szécsény, Hungary before the war; the good relations between Jews and non-Jews; living with his family on Próféta street, where there were many Jewish families; his Jewish friends; the gathering of Jews in the courtyard of the synagogue, where they were guarded by gendarmes; Jewish boys not being allowed to play football; seeing Jews wearing the Star of David; witnessing a deportation of Jews via truck; the Levente (paramilitary youth organizations) training, which was often held near his football training area, and hearing them sing anti-Jewish songs; and several Jewish families he knows who survived the war.

Rozália Csábi (Csabi Janosne Kelemen Rozália), born in 1934, describes life in Szécsény, Hungary before the war; her father’s work for Mr Donner, a Jewish man who ran a lumber yard and a brick factory; not having any Jewish classmates; the Jewish Klein brothers who owned a bakery and the Jewish greengrocer; not seeing the local Jews wear the star, except for the young Grünberger, the soda maker's son; seeing the local Jews, including the Donner family and the Kleins, escorted by Hungarian soldiers to the train station on Tarjáni street; being hugged by Mrs. Donner before they were deported and saying good-bye to Rózsika Donner; and Christians living in the Donners’ house.

István Márton, born in 1932, describes life and the ethnic diversity in Ipolyság/Šahy, Slovakia before the war; his Jewish neighbors in Šahy, including the Kinszki family, the Ertler family, and the Kinszki family; how in 1944 people began to talk about who amongst the Jews in Šahy were taken away; listening to a few of the radios in town; hearing about the camps; the Komlós brothers (who were children of a interfaith marriage) attending levente training; Jews having to wear a star; the creation of a ghetto; listening as the Komlós' discussed whether they would have to wear the star; Mr. Komlós going to the ghetto with his son and later being hidden by a forester in the Börzsöny; the hospital in the ghetto for those with infectious diseases; the closing of Jewish shops in 1944; his family keeping contact with Jewish families (Köves, Komlós, Ertler) up until the point they were moved into the ghetto; his classmate, István Gál, whose father was a gendarme; how after the German occupation of Hungary a chief gendarme, Károly Sziller, was put in control of Šahy and gendarmes were brought from other places and moved in to an emptied school building; going with his father to Tésa, where they met a group of 12 girls, who were taken to work for a land owner for two weeks; the conditions in the ghetto and the brutal treatment of Jews in Šahy; hearing about the interrogations of Jews; the deportation of the Jews and hearing about the atrocities at the train station where the Jews were loaded into wagons to be transported to Balassagyarmat; seeing the furniture of the deported Jews in public offices; the return of few Jews after the war; and his efforts to write a book about this time period in Šahy.

Edit Dánay Kállai (Kállai Istvanne Dánay Edit), born June 19, 1933, describes growing up in Budapest, Hungary; her suspicion that her Catholic family had Jewish roots; her father, who worked in the post office but was inducted into the army in 1942, sent to the front, and was very sick when he returned home; the three families in the Kallai’s house, including a woman and her son Janchi Bartos (he belonged to a partisan group and had a Jewish fiancée, Zsuzsa); the Arrow Cross; the many partisans who saved Jewish people from the ghetto; stories of people trying to rescue Jews; her friend Eva Biro, who wore a yellow star and attended school until the Arrow Cross took power in October 1944; watching as Jews were lined up in the Budapest neighborhoods of Rakospalota (XV. Kerület) and New Pest (IV. Kerület) to be taken away on wagons and seeing people beat, kick, push, and scream at the Jews that they were thieves and crooks and were ruining Hungary; having nightmares for months after witnessing this; knowing of a woman who committed suicide; hearing that Jews were taken to a movie theater, where they were tortured; the Kallai family taking food to the ghetto as long as its gates were open; going to the ghetto after it was emptied and visiting her former house on Vaci Street, which was one of many that had been bombed; how the Arrow Cross men had taken all valuables, including paintings, carpets, and china from homes in the ghetto; the Russian take over on January 7, 1945; moving with her family to Tolna, Hungary; and the very few Jews who returned after the war ended.

Erzsébet Ványi Kubik (Kubik Istvanne Ványi Erzsébet), born on June 6, 1931 in Budapest, Hungary, describes living at Hold Street number 41 until 1956; growing up in a home where there was no discrimination; the Jews living in her neighborhood, including her best friend Zsuzsi, who lived at Hold Street number 9 but did not attend the same school; the Jewish girls in her class and how there was no differentiation between Jewish and Christian students, except that they went to different religious classes; her math teacher who wore a yellow Jewish star; the many incidents that occurred against Jews after the mandate for Jews to wear a yellow star was introduced in 1944; Arrow Cross guards, who had been active even before the German occupation and how they marched and sang songs; Jews from all over being moved into Zsuzsi’s house in 1944; not being allowed to visit or talk to Zsuzsi because the Arrow Cross guards would search people who were friends with Jews; Jews being beaten and kicked when they were taken to the ghettos; Zsuzsi and her family being taken away with the other tenants; living in a government building near the American Embassy; seeing Jews being taken away along Vilmos Czasar Street but not knowing where they were being taken; seeing many rows with about eight people in each row and the Arrow Cross guards kicking, beating, and cursing at the people; the responses of the witnesses of the deportation; hearing that people were taken to the banks of the Danube, lined up, and shot; how her middle brother, who worked for a Jewish company, joined the Arrow Cross and her older brother also joined the Arrow Cross but never went to meetings and did not wear the uniform; her sister also joining the Arrow Cross and working in an office; her siblings’ internment for eight months after the war and the Jewish owner of the business, GYURI, vouched for them by saying that they had not done anything to hurt anyone; and the words to a song the Arrow Cross members sang often.

Learn about over 1,000 camps and ghettos in Volume I and II of this encyclopedia, which are available as a free PDF download. This reference provides text, photographs, charts, maps, and extensive indexes.